The 2013 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is just a week away. To preview the annual music marathon, which draws 20 percent of its audience from San Diego County, we’ll profile some of the most interesting performers. Our format, each week between now and Coachella’s April 12-14 opening weekend, is to focus on one veteran act and one relative newcomer booked for the sold-out festival.

Today’s subjects are rapper 2 Chainz and 1980s synth-pop stars, New Order. Now, the two acts couldn't be any further from each other, musically, chronologically and geographically (2 Chainz from the "Dirty South," New Order from "Jolly Old England"), but both speak to the artistic diversity that Coachella provides each and every year.

The newcomer: 2 Chainz

Age: 35

Performs at Coachella: April 13 & 20

First song of note: “Birthday Song” was released as the second single off of his debut album, "Based on a T.R.U. Story" (March 2012) and features Kanye West on the track. It is the kind of track that you can't stop singing in your head — because singing it out loud might get you fired from your job or reprimanded by your mom.

Most recent song: "I'm Different." The song is featured in a commercial for Champs Sports and Adidas. The video for the song has been criticized for featuring two armed civilians holding police officers at gunpoint. It should be noted, however, the officers were carrying illegal drugs.

What you need to know: 2 Chainz (Tauheed Epps) as nominated for Grammys for Best Rap Performance for his part on Kanye West's "Mercy" track, again in the Best Rap Song category for "Mercy," and his "Based On A T.R.U. Story" album was nominated for Best Rap Album. None of the three nominations garnered him a trophy, but it solidified his place in today's rap race. 2Chainz was born and bred in Atlanta and got his start as one half of the duo, Playaz Circle, which found minor success with “Duffle Bag Boy” featuring Lil’ Wayne. At the time, the duo was on the Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP), run by his College Park, Ga., friend and rapper, Ludacris.

But in 2010, 2 Chainz left DTP to go out on his own and found some traction with a mixtape entitled "T.R.U. REALigion," which topped out at No. 58 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart but proved he could go it alone. With that notoriety, he was approached to make guest appearances with artists such as Nicki Minaj, Ciara, and many others. Now with Def Jam, 2 Chainz is touring and is working on an album alleged for release sometime in April — and in reaction to being named the No. 2 Hottest MCs VIII by MTV in March, he said via Twitter (@2chainz) that the next album "will hush all the critics that the 1st album didn't."

The gamble: 2 Chainz had a big year, with three Grammy nominations, 13 BET Hip Hop Awards nominations (four wins) was named Source Magazine's Man of the Year, and worked with Adidas and Beats By Dre. He was also arrested and charged last May for fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon at an airport and on Valentine's Day was arrested and released in Maryland for possession of marijuana. No, it was not his birthday.

Did you know? He's 6-feet, 5-inches tall and during his senior season of high school at North Clayton (College Park, Ga.), he was regarded as a Division 1 recruit who was looked at by University of Memphis. He played a full season at Alabama State in 1996-97, averaging 11 minutes per game.

The veteran: New Order

Performs at Coachella: April 13 & 20

First song of note: In 1983, "Blue Monday" took nightclubs by storm and has been credited with kick-starting the house/dance scene of the late 1980s. If you were an 18-year-old who frequented all-ages nightclubs scattered around the area or found your way to Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana on the weekends, you heard this song — a lot. It eventually became the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time in the United Kingdom.

Most recent songs: "Sugarcane," "I Told You So," and "Hellbent" are three of the top tracks from the band's most recent album, "Lost Sirens," released in January of this year.

What you need to know: New Order was born in 1980 out of the tragic suicide death of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. But just months after his passing, the remaining members of the band — Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris — took to the stage as a band that would later become New Order. Without Curtis, the trio went a different direction, utilizing new technologies like drum machines and synthesizers, stepping into the land of electronic dance. Coming directly out of Joy Division, the band did something nobody else was, combining the synth-pop sound with dance music and a touch of post-punk moodiness. At the time, the kings of moody was The Cure, but you could dance to New Order.

By 1993, the band had broken up and didn't see each other for five years, focusing on side projects and new bands. Reconvening in 1998, the band released "Get Ready" in 2001 and continued to tour until 2009 when Hook decided he wanted out of the band and they subsequently shut down work. Two years later, they were back at it with a new lineup with Sumner at the lead, Morris (on drums), Phil Cunningham (bass), Gillian Gilbert (keyboards, after a 10 year break from the band) and Tom Chapman filling out the lineup.

Did you know? Original member Peter Hook played on the "Lost Sirens" album released in January, but he left the band in 2009. The band had gone back and forth on whether to put 20 songs on the 2005 release, "Waiting for the Sirens' Call," or break it up into two albums. They chose the latter, but when they broke up, the songs were never compiled until this year due to copyright issues.